This webpage includes an explanation of legislative bills, how they are submitted to the Diet to be enacted as law, and how to search for information about them on the Internet.

The following are links to English-language pages on the House of Representatives website, which describe Japanese legislative bills.

• Main Business of Plenary Sittings(in English)
• Deliberation of Bills (in English)

*With the exception of the above two links, all sources quoted in this page are in Japanese.

There are three kinds of legislatives bills, classified according to whether the bill is submitted by a Diet member or by the Cabinet:

・衆法 (Shuho): a legislative bill submitted by members of the House of Representatives

・参法 (Sampo): a legislative bill submitted by members of the House of Councillors

・閣法 (Kakuho): a legislative bill submitted by the Cabinet

Each bill is assigned a serial number in order of submission to the Diet for each session.

Example: 衆法 No.1, 1st Diet session

The table on pages 28-30 of the following article lists the number of legislative bills submitted (by type), the number of legislative bills enacted, and the rate of enactment from the 1st to the 188th Diet session.

Chieko Kayano 議員立法序説(An Introduction to Legislation Initiated by Diet Members) Reference No.776, September 2015, pp. 1-30.

Tools

1. 日本法令索引 Index Database to Japanese Laws, Regulations, and Bills--National Diet Library

The 日本法令索引 is useful to those who wish to search the text or related information of legislative bills using the title (or part of the title) of the bill.

Using this database, you can find relevant information of the bill since the inaugural session of the Imperial Diet in 1890 to the present including the full title, the name of the sponsor, the date the bill was submitted, information on deliberation, and related minutes. A legislative bill that was passed into law also include the name of the law, its date of promulgation, and a law number.

Searching text of legislative bills

1. From the Index Database to Japanese Laws, Regulations and Bills webpage, click the 詳細検索 button and then 法律案・条約承認案件検索 button.
2. Input search parameters, such as any part of the name of a legislative bill, and click the 検索 button to display the search results.
3. To view the details of a particular legislative bill, click the hyperlinked bill title among the search results list.
4. 審議経過 (Deliberation progress) is shown.
5. Find the entries noted as 議案 and click the PDF button to the right.

2. 衆議院「議案情報」 Agenda information for the House of Representatives

This page displays a list of all the agenda items, including legislative bills, for each session of the House of Representatives from the 142nd Diet session in 1998 to the present. Click the 審議経過 link to view details for each item, including information on the plenary sessions of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors, dates of committee voting, and names of agreeing parties and opposing parties. Also available are amendments in addition to the initially submitted text.

3. 衆議院法制局「衆法情報」 Shuhoinformation from the the Legislative Bureau of the House of Representatives

This page displays a list of Diet sessions during which legislative bills or proposed amendments to existing laws were submitted by members of the House of Representatives and includes links to detailed information, including the original or amended texts, the sponsors, submission dates, and other related information from the 180th Diet session in 2012 to the present. There are also links to Tool 2 衆議院「議案情報」.

4. 参議院「議案情報」 Agenda information for the House of Councillors

This page shows a list of legislative bills for each session from the 153rd Diet in 2001 to the present. Detailed information and the text of the legislative bill are available as well as the adoption dates at the plenary sessions of the House of Representatives, the House of Councillors, and committees or the results of pushbutton voting at plenary sessions of the House of Councillors. In addition to the submitted legislative bills, users can see the summaries of agendas, amendments, and the text of the enacted laws.

5. 参議院法制局「参議院議員提出法律案情報」 Sampo information from the Legislative Bureau of the House of Councillors

This page has a pull-down menu of links to lists of legislative bills proposed during each session from the inaugural session of the Diet (1947) to the present, including full text and summary for those from the 114th session to the present as well as a side-by-side comparison of the original and the amended legislative bills from the 185th session to the present. There are also links to Tool 4. 参議院「議案情報」 from the 185th Diet session in 2013 to the present.

6. e-Govポータル「国会提出法案」 The official web portal of Government of Japan（e-Gov）Legislative bills submitted by the Cabinet to the Diet

This webpage is part of the official web portal of Government of Japan (e-Gov), which is a comprehensive administrative information portal site operated by the Administrative Management Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. It provides links to detailed information on legislative bills drafted by Cabinet ministries for submission to the Diet as well as treaties submitted to the Diet for ratification.

This detailed information generally comprises five documents: the full text of the legislative bill, a statement of purpose, an outline, a side-by-side comparison of the original and the amended text, and other reference documents. Also, the webpages of ministries and agencies often include an easy-to-understand, one-page summary of legislative bills.

In general, Cabinet ministries and other government agencies post materials on legislative bills they drafted for submission to the Diet for the latest several years, but the coverage differs from site to site.

Appendix: Scope of each tool